Masquerading in No. 4's place as veterans join training camp this weekend will be a skinny kid who tips the scales at 20 to 25 pounds less than Pierce did.

Where Pierce, a shade over six feet tall, has always suited up at 215-218 pounds, the new guy is in the low 190s, 195 tops, with a body fat count of 8%, compared to Pierce's 15%.

After eight years of listening to coaches who tell him to bulk up to absorb the inevitable hits coming his way, all too many of which have put him in sick bay, Pierce has switched strategies.

He'll outrun them, instead.

"My conditioning is as good as it ever has been," Pierce told the Winnipeg Sun, Friday. "They're allowing me to be a little lighter... and see how I feel. They always want you a bit heavy. I feel more comfortable right where I am now. And that's about 20 to 25 pounds lighter than what I played at."

Pierce dropped the unwanted baggage by taking advantage of our dreadful six-month winter and working out like a fiend, coupled with a diet that would make a super model proud.

"I still love food," Pierce said. "You can still eat great foods and enjoy your meals, but you do have to eat for purpose and not for pleasure all the time. I didn't starve myself. People think that to lose weight you have to starve yourself.

"I'm a healthy 195 right now. And a strong and a fast 195. That makes for a good football player."

Maybe a desperate one, too.

Let's face it, this is a make-or-break year for the 31-year-old.

After an off-season that he admits took a toll on him, mentally -- Bomber brass weren't sure if they wanted to roll the dice with him, again -- Pierce is getting one more chance to prove he can be counted on.

In a new offence custom-made to protect him, with quick releases, extra blockers and a solid running game.

If he can't stay in one piece this year, the quarterbacks of the future are sitting in stalls next to him in that spiffy new locker-room.

Running the place, a head coach and offensive co-ordinator who brought the new faces in, while inheriting Pierce.

The coach, for the record, is all for the less-is-more approach taken by his starter.

"I'm for anything that he feels good about," Tim Burke said. "Calvillo did the same thing (in Montreal) a few years back. Drew Brees (New Orleans), same thing. Their coaches would like him to be heavier and he would rather be lighter so he could be more mobile in the pocket. And that's what Buck's goal is. It's Cassius Clay as opposed to Sonny Liston."

Clay did all right, becoming the heavyweight champion of the world.

Pierce would settle for knocking out a Grey Cup drought that, as a year-round Winnipegger, jabs at him nearly every day.

"I'm so optimistic about this," Pierce said. "I'm so excited. I don't want to show that too much, I guess. It's on my mind every day. Ever since I moved here. I see it every day from the fans. You walk down the street, they say, 'Are we going to win a Grey Cup this year?' I say, 'Yeah, that's the plan.'

"It's exciting because the wheels are in motion. I don't care what happened last year. I don't care what everybody outside our facility says. That is our mindset."

I don't know if this new, slimmed-down quarterback is going to work out.